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Usually the rain hurts.
Nico’s joints ache with the shift in barometric pressure, headaches press against his temples, and all the moisture in the air always seems to make it hard to breathe. It’s the lightning which is the worst though, the way it flashes across the sky, the loud cracking sound as it strikes, the fear of never knowing where it would hit…
He had too many leftover memories of his mother’s death, and it tended to way on his conscience. Forgive him, her death never left him with anything beyond rainy day trials and loneliness.
So, usually when the winds change, and the leafs go limp in their trees Nico subconsciously starts preparing for the worst. His body aching and tense as he just desperately tries to ignore all the various possible outcomes the storm could bring. Hoping instead for distraction in the form of Will’s arms, music or a movie loud enough to drown out the sounds of nature for just a little bit.
But today was a little different, the skies didn’t turn gray before it rained, and the humidity in the air didn’t shift, the leaves didn’t relax in welcoming for the water either. When it rained today, it was almost like the sky cracked and poured water responsible out beneath the sun in heavy beaded drops.
To make matters worse, Will wasn’t even home. A few hours before he’d kissed Nico’s forehead goodbye, and left for the hospital. Apparently it doesn’t matter if your husband graduated top of his class from an Ivy League school, he still had to take the questionable hours without questions and work his way up to the top. Usually Nico didn’t care if Will was gone, he would always come home- this wasn’t usually though.
To Nico this was a worse case scenario, no time to do anything but hope it was over quickly and try to not think about it too much. Also, despite the fact that he would never admit he needed Will for such a small thing, there was also the downside of not having anyone to comfort him during all this. He’d lived a lifetime of loneliness in the handful of years where childhood becomes adulthood and he wasn’t keen on returning to it in any way. It’d taken him time to grow beyond the urge to be alone, to practice love enough to be able to do it effortlessly. Petty for sure, but the gods were testing him again, like the loudness of teeth making their way through a meal they got under his skin.
To top matters off, Nico had the added bonus of two kids who were now begging to play in the rain.
“Please Papa,” Micheal says with his little arms wrapped around Nico’s thigh, “Dad always takes us out in the rain, can you?”
“I don’t know, tesorino ,” Nico runs a hand through his son’s hair, “probably not today, maybe when Dad comes home?”
Micheal decides to bury his face into Nico’s side further, making an incoherent “hmphmph” sound before lifting his head up to give Nico big brown puppy eyes, “Please, just this once?”
“You can use an umbrella!” Lee offers helpfully from somewhere down the hallway.
Nico realizes when he hears the thud of Lee pulling out boots that he’s not getting out of this, and decides to suck it up and agree, “Okay but only for a half an hour, alright?”
Two loud cheers of “Yes!” before he feels Michael let go of him and hears two sets of footsteps running down the hall.
Unlike his kids, who are probably having a race to see who can put their clothes on faster, Nico drags his feet walking down the hallway to his and Will’s bedroom. There he takes it upon himself to “borrow” Will’s jacket and work boots.It’s not like Nico doesn’t have a raincoat, he does… Somewhere… It’s just kind of easier and faster to grab Will’s jacket, which also has the benefit of being too big on Nico, which keeps more rain off. As for the boots, Nico isn’t about to willingly wear his combat boots into the mud.
The jacket isn’t in his style at all, a bright teal color accented in yellows along the sleeves and where the zippers are, but it’s okay, it reminds Nico of Will and he could use some of that now. Nico willingly going out into the cold and dark of rain, laughable, he could at least do this wearing whatever he wanted. He walks out of his room and back down the hallway to see Lee and Micheal carrying their rain boots towards the backdoor, Nico calls for them and hands each of them one of his own shoes, before making his way to the front closet to find an umbrella.
Nico’s search proves fruitful because he manages to find an umbrella hung up in the closet with their winter coats, he pulls it out and goes to join his kids. At the backdoor the pair is waiting for Nico, they’re wearing their right shoes but each other's jackets. Lee, normally dressed in navy, has Micheal’s red coat on, and Micheal is wearing Lee’s navy jacket. Nico decides not to mention it, if that’s the worst prank they ever try to pull he’s going to have an easy time raising them.
“Outside we go,” Nico says, slipping on Will’s boots, and opening the doorwall to the outside world.
The slightly sticky air comes in through the doorwall, and although both his kids are cheering watching the rain strike the ground, Nico is scrunching up his nose in distaste. He is still trying not to think about anything that could go wrong, and instead is choosing to worry about the possibility of all the mud he’s going to have to clean up (and maybe internally complaining some about warm rain smelling like worms).
He considers telling them not to use mud like a slip-n-slide, but decides he doesn’t even want to give them the idea to do such a thing. Taking a deep sigh Nico opens his umbrella and steps outside after his kids, who have already made themselves at home outside digging through their toy chest looking for something.
“Papa?” Lee turns from what he’s doing to look at him, “Can we use the hose?”
Nico tries to hide a flinch at the sound of thunder, “The hose? You want to use the hose in all of this?”
“Dad would let us!” Micheal yells his waist bent over their toy bin, his feet off the ground.
“Okay, let’s start with why?” Nico is probably going to regret asking.
“For a habi-habitat?” Lee struggles with the word, “Right?”
“Yeah, habitat is right, for what though?”
Two enthusiastic cheers of “Frogs!” are his response, so he tells them to go ahead. Sure they could collect rain but what would it hurt to give them a spout? He thinks after agreeing that this could perhaps devolve into “who can soak their brother better” water gun style competition with a hose, but like the mud slip-n-slide he decides not to mention it. The twins rediscover the miracle of teamwork and determine Lee will get the water while Micheal goes off to collect sticks and leaves for a floor.
“Maybe some mud too if you can find it,” Lee tells his brother seriously from near the water spicket, “Frogs like mud I’m sure.”
“Don’t go too far, okay?” Nico calls after Micheal as he runs off a little further away from the house, towards the little hill.
“Okay!” Micheal tries to turn around to yell back at him and proceeds to simply slip on the wet grass, falling on his stomach into a big spot of mud.
There’s a moment of shocked silence, where Micheal doesn’t move and Nico goes from thinking about the mess of this entire adventure to wondering if he’s okay, “You alright?”
“Yeah! I’m tough!” Micheal turns his neck around to smile at Nico, “Do you think this would be a good slide?”
“I would really rather you not, tesorino .”
“Mm, okay, maybe some other time?”
“Sure,” Nico says with a smirk, “when you're big enough to give yourself a shower!”
“I can right now!” Micheal rises to his feet, and sure enough is covered in light brown mud, “So I can?”
“No, you can’t,” Lee yells, “You still need help with not getting soap in your eyes!”
“No, no, I can do it just fine, it’s just easier that way. Can I Papa? Can I?”
“Not today, do it one day with your Dad,” Nico tells him, Micheal makes his bottom lip stick out in a pouting face for a moment before smiling.
“Don’t worry, I’ll convince him next time!”
After that little incident, the pair ends up working together okay, Micheal coming back with a collection of stuff (“The mud was too hard to carry but I found rocks!” Nico decides to not bother mentioning those came from the landscaping), and Lee having got a “sufficient” amount of water (“Do you even know what sufficient means?” “Yeah, Dad uses it!” “Okay, what does it mean?” “Uhhh… Lots?”) they decide they’re finally ready to look for frogs.
They muddy their fingers moving underbrush, and they clean them held up to the sky or in the buckets they’ve laid around collecting water. Eventually frogs turn up, one, then two, followed by a third, each presented to Nico with large mouthed glory.
“Take a picture for Dad! Take a picture for Dad!” They alternate clutching onto Nico’s legs and his arms, with no concern for how he’ll get his phone out with his arms being kept in place by his sons- let alone how to keep it from getting wet.
Nico agrees that he will when they go back inside for dinner, and this means they determine they’ve got to find a fourth frog so they will have one frog for each of their combined hands. For a moment they entrust their collection of friends stored in buckets intended for dirt or sand to Nico, asking him to babysit as they locate their ever necessary fourth frog.
It’s Lee who saves the day, holds the frog up high above his head like he’s won a great prize and is showing it off waiting for his brother’s approval. There’s a squabble among his return over which two frogs they each get because it’s important they both have the right amount of yellow, green, and brown on their frogs and one is particularly cute. Eventually it’s resolved that if Micheal can have the one Lee caught last he’ll leave Lee alone about having the cute frog.
Then they pose, hands out awkwardly with shoulders bumping, gaps from where their teeth are missing. Nico hits send, doesn’t add an “I love you” or anything because it’s an obvious conclusion from the content of the images.
“Hey, Papa? The frog made my hand really warm, I think it peed?”
“Ew!” Lee exclaims as Nico looks up.
“Yeah, ew,” he agrees, “let’s let the frogs go in the bushes and then go in and wash your hands- don’t touch anything but the frogs.”
Micheal gives him a serious nod before looking back at the frog in his disgraced hand, he gets a strange soft look and says “it’s okay Mr. Frog, accidents happen, also my hand was cold so thank you.”
If love wasn’t obvious in the images he sent it will be in the stories shared at midnight or the following morning after Will comes back home, and Nico will think silently about how they did something right if they raised a son who comforts a frog for its nature. Knowing Will he’ll catch on and try to figure out what Nico is thinking about, and Nico will say something about how wonderfully bizarre his life is. In all honesty, who would have thought he’d ever be allowed all this?